Resources, trends, and motivation to fulfill the Great Commission

bible

The Digital Bible Society has made 500+ print Bibles available in just as many languages. Because out-of-print Bibles are rare and expensive, many believers have given up hope of finding a Bible in their mother tongue. Now, minority language speakers can get Bibles cheaply on amazon.com. DBS is providing these print-on-demand offerings at cost in order to alleviating the dearth of scripture worldwide. Find these scriptures at…

YWAM’s study bible, “The Christian Growth Study Bible,” is the closest thing we can find to the request of a recent inquirer looking for a Bible that focuses on UPG’s and the persecuted church. It has a 30 path discipleship study guide as well as profiles throughout the bible on unreached people groups, but, alas, no emphasis on the persecuted church. It’s available here:

This past week, a Brigada participant asked if there existed “a Bible published or in the works that highlights global discipleship, unreached people groups, and the persecuted church? It sounded like a great idea, but we couldn’t remember hearing of any. Have you? If you know of something that might work, please click “Comment” after the web version of this item. Thanks so much!

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This is church-based Bible translation — and it’s changing the face of translation as we know it. These approaches report that they can radically reduce the amount of time involved (length of each translation) while maintaining integrity for the work and the Word. What’s YOUR take on these claims? (Please click “Comment” following the web version of this item to give your own opinion.)

Here are some hard-working field people who have come up with a tool you can install on your website that lets visitors download the Bible in Arabic for free — in a couple of different versions, in fact. Check it out at …

They might be “Common English Expressions” to you, but to your students, they’ll be precious. Do you need another tool for teaching English using the Bible? Consider “Putting Words in Our Mouths: A Look at Biblical Expressions in American English,” at

Written by Craig, a former missionary in Taiwan, the site includes over 150 idioms, words, and phrases that originated in the English Bible. And since the entries are arranged in chronological order, they tell the Bible story from Genesis through Revelation. “Putting Words in Our Mouths” offers a great path for leading English learners to an understanding of scripture and for leading students of the Bible to a fuller use of the English language. (Thanks Craig!)

I’m asked that question now and then. Many believers today are more excited than ever about progress with Bible translation — and rightfully so. If you haven’t been keeping up on the progress, you really owe it to yourself to get updated. One easy place to go:

There you’ll find all the recent stats, as well as some great visual maps (right column). Download a PDF copy of the page there, when you’re finished, by using the link at the end of the page. (Thanks Pete!)

What does this mean for you? If you’re an English teacher, it means you can guarantee your students a clear and simple set of easily-memorized passages. Learn more about Easy English in this Microsoft PowerPoint presentation:

To us, it makes sense to carry a printed Bible when on a trip for His Name’s Sake, even though there are a host of great Bible apps for our smartphones and other digitally connected devices. Why? What if the power goes out for an entire day and the batteries on your laptop and phone tucker out? Besides, I’m convinced that in some contexts, it still just looks WEIRD to teach or share the gospel using a phone or laptop Bible, especially in some contexts. So we recommend the thinnest NT/OT you can find (with print you can still read). It’s probably best to visit a Bible bookstore for this purchase, but as a rule of thumb, the NIV Thinline Bible seems to be a good compromise for font size and packing size. See a sample here…

[truth in advertising: if you buy a Logos product at this page, you save 15%, but Logos also will make a gift to Brigada. Having said that, our opinion still stands: It’s still the one to which everybody else compares.] Nothing seems to compare with the depth and breadth of Logos offerings.

But sometimes you might now WANT that much depth. If you have an ultrabook laptop, for example, Logos’ 15 gigs (plus) might be overkill. In these cases, throughout the years, we’ve noticed a consistent interest in the Laridian line of Bibles. See their features at…

By going with a product like Laridian, you can still keep your purchases across multiple platforms. That is to say, the Bible version you purchase for your laptop can also be available on your phone. Another advantage of Laridian and similar class Bible apps: They’re just faster, sometimes, than opening up a giant application like Logos.

might be enough for you. Around 165 million users have made that decision by installing the app on their own devices. Over 1000 versions are available in 779 languages. In addition, some still haven’t noticed that YouVersion now offers several Bible versions for offline reading too. Learn more at…

We’ve already been asking about this one in past editions of Brigada. Logos Bible is great, but if you just need something quick, do you end up opening e-Sword LT, BLB, Olive Tree Bible+ Maps, or what? What’s your favorite currently and why? So far, there’s been no clear winner.